Sustainability Report 2009 - The Co-operative

Complaints received by other customer contact centres
2006 2007 2008 2009
The Co-operative Bank 20,395 37,047 21,723 20,190
The Co-operative Insurance
– regulated
The Co-operative Insurance
– unregulated
43,810 27,330 17,537 17,855
6,246 3,371 2,700 3,123
The Co-operative Travel 4,212 4,067 23 4,620 4,876
The Co-operative Pharmacy n/a 747 24 915 1,552
The Co-operative Insurance complaints, whilst consistent with numbers
recorded in 2008, have fallen significantly since 2006, due to changes
in FSA requirements for reporting. The number of Co-operative
Pharmacy complaints increased in 2009, in part due to a new NHS
complaints procedure that makes it easier for patients, including those
visiting pharmacies, to raise concerns. Work to rationalise product
ranges across The Co-operative Pharmacy branches, resulting in the
discontinuation of some product ranges, and national quotas of key
prescription lines have also led to complaints relating to availability.
Customer engagement
The Co-operative engages customers via numerous channels,
in addition to the customer satisfaction and corporate reputation
surveys detailed above. These include:
The Co-operative Food chip and pin feedback: InSight
The Co-operative Food utilises chip and pin terminals to gather
customer feedback on pertinent customer service, sustainability and
business issues 25 , with a new question asked every week 26 . InSight
was designed and developed in-house and is unique to The
Co-operative. An average of 350,000 responses was received each
week during 2009, providing an instant reading on customer opinion.
The Co-operative Food customer panels: The Taste Team
A pilot customer panel, The Taste Team, was introduced in February
2009 to help ensure own-brand ranges meet or exceed customer
expectations. A total of 1,200 customer members sample new
products and provide feedback via an online questionnaire. Products
achieving a sufficiently high panel score are progressed to launch.
In 2009, 259 tests were completed and, from March 2010, all new
products have passed through The Taste Team approval process.
CFS: Customer Experience Forums
A series of ‘Customer Experience Forums’ were launched in 2009
to help CFS build its customer satisfaction levels. Three forums were
held each month throughout the year; one each for Retail Bank,
General Insurance, and Life and Savings. The forums are used to
generate ideas for improvements, based on customer views.
CFS: customer panel
A CFS customer panel delivers feedback from a representative
sample of customers on business-specific developments and
potential product and service propositions.
CFS: Customer Consultative Council
CFS operates a Customer Consultative Council, made up of
24 customers, to provide in-depth feedback on all aspects of the
business, including strategy, products, ethics and people policies.
The first meeting of the Council was held in December 2009, and
future meetings will be convened quarterly. The Council builds on
the former Britannia Members’ Council, which, prior to the merger
(page 6), provided a valuable ‘sense check’ on business proposals.
Read more in this Report
• Chip and pin InSight survey results (pages 38, 67, 80, 81).
• Customer members (page 88).
• Responsible lending (pages 40–42).
• Sound sourcing of goods for resale (pages 21–24).
• Animal welfare standards of own-brand products (pages 30–34).
• Nutritional content of own-brand products (page 37).
• Access to Co-operative stores and outlets (pages 47–48).
• ‘Medicines check’ service, to help Muslim customers manage
their medicines whilst fasting during Ramadan (page 54).
• Fairtrade products (pages 20–21).
• Products supporting financial inclusion (pages 47–49).
• Recycled content in products and packaging (page 73).
Accompanying notes
1 Surveys comprise telephone interviews (Food
and Travel), exit interviews (Pharmacy) and
self-completion paper-based surveys
(Legal Services).
2 Derived from a combination of GfK NOP’s
syndicated Financial Research Survey
(FRS) of 60,000 general financial services
customers (for Retail Bank and General
Insurance Products) and a monthly survey
of Life and Savings customers who have
recently contacted CFS, conducted by
Network Research.
3 The corporate survey was conducted in May
2009. The Business banking survey was
conducted during April/May and October/
November 2009.
4 To be derived from the GfK NOP FRS which
measures advocacy/likelihood to recommend
on a 0 to 10 scale. CFS will focus on the
proportion scoring 8–10 (equivalent to
relating to those who are ‘extremely likely’
or ‘very likely’ to recommend the business).
Product level scores will be weighted by
product numbers to produce an overall score.
5 The peer group consists of Nationwide,
Barclays, Halifax, Lloyds, NatWest, HSBC
and Santander.
6 The CRI was created by The Co-operative in
partnership with Millward Brown,
www.millwardbrown.com
7 The CRI score is based on the regions in
which The Co-operative operates.
8 Leadership and reliability: 60%, caring
company: 26%, public responsibility: 14%.
9 Data presented is an average of the four
quarterly satisfaction scores. ‘Very satisfied
customers’ are those rating their satisfaction
with The Co-operative as 9 or 10 out of 10.
10 Statistical modelling of 2009 customer
satisfaction survey results was used to derive
the relationship between specific drivers and
overall satisfaction. ‘Real importance’ drivers
were last reviewed in early 2009.
11 Data presented relates to December each
year. A new methodology for the calculation
of the Life and Savings customer satisfaction
score, which feeds into the overall CFS score,
was adopted in 2008.
12 Score represents an average of two surveys
conducted: 83.9% (April/May) and 81.5%
(October/November).
13 The average score across all UK organisations
surveyed is 0.
14 2006 score was based on surveys
undertaken throughout the UK, rather
than exclusively within The Co-operative’s
trading areas.
15 Former Somerfield and former Britannia have
separate entries to The Co-operative in the
2009 CRI, but will be included within The
Co-operative score from 2010. At the time
of the 2009 survey, few Somerfield stores
had been rebranded to The Co-operative or
stocked Co-operative brand products, and the
Britannia merger date was very recent.
16 The survey approach involves consumers
being questioned about The Co-operative and
one other competitor. A reduced number of
consumers were questioned in 2009 than
in previous years and, as a result, fewer
competitors are included in the
research findings.
17 Comprises: charges fair prices for
its products/services; promotes itself
responsibly; is a company you can trust;
and cares about its customers.
18 Comprises: supports good causes; supports
local communities; treats its employees well;
behaves in a socially responsible way; is
different from other companies; and has a
useful role in society.
19 The business produces an annual report
to customers detailing key survey results
and planned activities. The latest report is
available at www.goodwithmoney.com
20 3,569 Co-operative Group outlets and 461
outlets of other co-operative societies had
been rebranded by end 2009.
21 The department is open seven days a week
– 11 hours per day on weekdays and eight
hours per day at the weekend. Freephone
telephone number: 0800 0686 727,
Minicom: 0800 0686 717, Freepost address:
Co-op FREEPOST – MR9473, Manchester
M4 8BA, and email address: customer.
relations@co-operative.coop appear on
literature and own-brand products.
22 In addition to the general Customer Relations
team, CFS, The Co-operative Travel and The
Co-operative Pharmacy each operate their
own customer contact centres to handle
customer queries and complaints.
23 The Co-operative Travel’s 2007 complaints
figure comprises calls received in relation
to Travelcare (2,987) and the former United
Travel branches (1,080). The 2006 figure is
split between Travelcare (3,122) and United
Travel (990). The United figure does not
include phone calls, as they were not logged.
24 154 of these complaints were received by
the former United Co-operative Pharmacies;
593 were received by The Co-operative
Group Pharmacies.
25 Sustainability-related InSight results are
included in relevant sections throughout
this Report.
26 Customer service questions made up 31% of
questions asked during 2009; sustainabilityrelated
questions made up a further 31% of
questions asked during 2009.
Delivering value Membership and co-operation Economic impact Employees Customers Public policy
The Co-operative Group Sustainability Report 2009 111